Geeta Kumari Phogat is a renowned Indian Wrestler who grabbed the gold medal in Commonwealth Games, 2010 and became the very first Indian woman to secure the position through her struggle and hard work. Born on 15th December 1988 and bought in Balali Village of Haryana, she struggles with her passion for wrestling. Her motivation was his father, who was strict for the training of his 2 daughters and given all his life to make his daughters capable of representing India on an international level.
Here, we are going to explore the struggling yet thrilling life story of the iconic girl of India, “The Geeta Kumari Phogat.”
Background History of Geeta Kumari Phogat
She is the daughter of renowned wrestler and coach Mahavir Singh Phogat in the Bhiwani District. Mahavir was married to Daya Kaur and had 4 daughters and 1 son. He had also taken care of his brother’s son and daughter after his brother’s unfortunate demise. Therefore, Geeta was bought up in a big family of 9 members, including her. When Karnam Malleswari won the gold medal in Olympics in 2000, it becomes Mahavir’s first inspiration to train his daughters as a wrestler. His aim for providing training to all his daughters is to honor India with Gold Medal in Wrestling. He never stopped, even though villagers were criticizing Mahavir for raising his daughters as a son.
Geeta Wrestle has accomplished her study from Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak and joined Sports Authority India Centre in Sonipat due to the lack of availability of superior coaching centers in her village. She slanged from her path while living in the coaching center and got attracted to materialist things. But, her father, Mahavir, was always there to show the correct path to his daughters and let them realize the meaning and aim of life. Her height is 5 feet, and weight is 62 kg, and she plays as a freestyle wrestler.
Awards She Received for Her Success
- The biggest award received by Geeta Phogat was the “Arjuna Award” in 2012.
- She received Gold Medal in Commonwealth Championship in Jalandhar, 2009.
- In 2010 she was honored with a gold medal in the commonwealth games held in Delhi 2010.
- She received Gold Medal in Commonwealth Championship in Melbourne, 2011.
- In 2012, Geeta was honored by the Bronze medal for Strathcona County in World Championships.
- Again in 2012, she won the Gold medal for FILA Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament for Astana.
- She received Silver Medal in Commonwealth Championship in Johannesburg, 2013.
- After that, she had received the Bronze medal in the Asian Championships award in Gumi, 2012, and Doha, 2015.
Apart from these few renowned medals, she has achieved the first score in many local and state-wide tournaments. Her achievements are vast.
Career Brief
Geeta Kumari Phogat has started her journey from her village under the guidance of her father. She gained maximum skills at an early age and then joined the academy for further training. Geeta loved to have junk food and movies but kept aside all her fantasies to focus on her career. She learned a new thing every time she fought a match at any state, central, or international level. Her techniques kept improving by analyzing the performance of her opponent. She worked hard to learn the body language of the opponent to guess their next hit. Body language tells a wrestler that helps them to save themselves.
Therefore, her practice and learning keep going till today. You can see a huge improvement in her performance in every second tournament.
Some Interesting Facts about Geeta Phogat
- She loves to purchase new clothes and do online shopping. She has a good sense of make-up, but due to her field of work, she was unable to enjoy her liking.
- The most interesting part of the “Phogat Family” is their bloodline wrestling love. All the daughters and sons of Mahavir are associated with one or the other branch of wrestling. Even his father was a renowned wrestler in Haryana. Hence, the game tactics and passion were passed to the new generations over the years.
- Geeta’s father often states one line to people that “if a girl has the capability to become Prime Minister of India, then why a girl can’t become a wrestler?”
- In the initial years of her struggle and training as a teenager, Geeta and Babita have to face a lot of negative comments from the community, but their eagerness to become something helped them to cope up with the situation.
- Phogat sisters are always an early riser who gets training for 4 hours before going to school. It was the toughest challenge for both as small children to cope up with much pressure.
In this way, there are many other interesting facts about the struggling lifestyle of Phogat sisters and their personal likes and dislikes, which may amaze you.
Controversy after Release of Real-Life movie “Dangal.”
After the release of the real-life movie based on the Phogat sister’s life, the coach “PR Sodhi,” who was providing training to Geeta and Babita has criticized makers and amir khan. He asked for apologies from them for wrongly shooting the character of PR Sodhi as a coach of the National Sports Academy. It was a hurting shoot for sentiments and tweeted back for unappreciative behavior.
What does Geeta Phogat’s Life Journey tell the reader?
If you look into the journey, struggle, and interesting moments of her life, then it delivers a message of passion and love for what you do and how you do. You should be clear about your goals and start preparing for the same as soon as possible. The practice you do daily, the more you will get a chance to enhance your skills and learnings.
The second thing that you could learn from Geeta and Babita is women’s empowerment and fighting for their rights. People will tell you one thing or the other for your whole life, but it is you who decided whether to shout or prove everyone wrong by your achievements.
In this way, you can learn a lot of things from their skills and life journey.